Sup ya'll
HUMONGOUS shout out to all of you. You're all wonderful people :)
I absolutely love the in-depth and detailed reviews you guys are leaving for this story. Please, keep 'em coming!
To answer a review, I first want to say that we've been driving through one-two weeks in the Silent Night-verse since Chapter Six. The first time we meet Minato is also when Jiraiya takes him up as a student, the next time we see him is like four days later. I apologize for not clarifying that Minato hasn't been Jiraiya's student for very long, so the news hadn't gone round Konoha (or the world for that matter).
Now onto this chapter.
Woof, well…for starters…this chapter is pretty dark…
Read to find out why.
Enjoy…
CHAPTER 12
"That's enough."
Those words echoed through the air like a death bell, freezing all in their tracks and rooting them to the ground. Kakuzu felt a chill run through his entire body and his fingers twitched, still holding the face of a defiant Hogo Kunoichi he was about to kill with a well-placed Water Bullet to her forehead.
Blue eyes shone brightly from directly behind him.
'F-Fast.' The man thought as Naruto stood behind him, fully clad in his Leader's cloak and his wide brimmed hat. 'How did he get behind me?' the man asked himself, frozen in place from the presence of death himself looming over his shoulder. The man's green eyes flicked back, catching as the masked assassin seemed to grow five feet taller and draped from head to toe in darkness, leaving only his chilling eyes to glimmer down at him, shaded with anger and madness. 'How didn't I sense him?'
His eyes darkened fractionally, then the corners turned up slightly as the blonde saw the scattered bodies around the Waterfall ninja.
Naruto whistled. "Wow, you really are as strong as they say."
The Ghost chuckled darkly, rising higher and spreading his presence around the broken battlefield. The DC medics rushed about, unfeeling of the killer intent of their Leader, as it wasn't directed at them, and hefted the injured back to the village. One brave medic approached Kakuzu and wrenched the gasping mole summoning Kunoichi out of his hand, giving the man a hateful glare and skittering back as the blue eyes of their leader briefly trained on her, warning her to leave.
Kakuzu couldn't move.
Kakuzu couldn't breathe.
"Aack." He wheezed as an invisible stone settled in his throat and on his chest.
Naruto laughed, his voice deeper and more demonic and his glowing blue yes radiating pleasure. His body radiated with killer intent, strong enough to dig Kakuzu's feet into the ground to his ankles. "It takes a lot to beat my Defence Corp, and for that I applaud your determination. But…what I don't like…" he placed a hand on Kakuzu's shoulder, a light, gentle hand, and the green eyed ninja's knees immediately slammed into the ground. "Is how you went about trying to get my attention."
Kakuzu grit his teeth painfully and grunted. "It…worked…didn't it…?"
Naruto's terrifying eyes closed as he smiled. "It certainly did."
Naruto's hand left Kakuzu's shoulder and the killer intent rushed back into Naruto's body, thick black smoke flooded past Kakuzu and into the Ghost, who was reducing to his normal size and normal clothing.
"I will give you one chance to get my bounty, Kakuzu. If you fail, I will not only kill you but I will halve Waterfall's population. Whether your acting on your own devices or not."
All it took was one order.
His ninjas would gladly do it.
None of his allies were allied to Waterfall anyway…
The man casually walked before the kneeling bounty hunter, removing his cloak and his hat and handing it to his assistant, Sueki. "Try and flee and I will give chase. You should pray you have already killed yourself before I catch you."
"Ha…Ha…You don't seem so tough." The green eyed ninja grunted, staggering back to his feet.
Naruto raised an eyebrow and hummed. "Oh?"
"I was the one that pushed Hashirama to the brink." He jabbed his chest proudly.
"That…wasn't what I heard." Naruto said. "I heard he hit you around and you ran away with your tail between your legs."
"Lies!"
"Calm down, calm down, fighting me while you're so riled won't do you any good."
"Don't talk to me like that, I'm older than you."
A new batch of Defence Corp ninjas sped out of the gates and assembled around them, creating a clean, wide circle. "Age means nothing when you anger the wrong person; you're supposed to be smarter than that." Naruto tutted, talking like a teacher reprimanding a student. Sueki stood taller at that, keeping her hands out and holding her master's neatly folded robe and hat.
Naruto didn't show an ounce of anger to Kakuzu, not compared to the Blue Eyed Harbinger of Death that had been behind him, and for that Kakuzu was pissed. "You're looking down on me."
"On the contrary, I expect a lot from you, Waterfall shinobi." Naruto looked around with dull eyes at the DC ninjas that had formed the circle around them. "You say you pushed Hashirama to the brink and I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, only as long as you push me to the brink too."
"Easy." The man said and held up his fists in a fighting style, his jounin flak jacket warbled with activity. "You'll be dead before you know it."
"I like your confidence."
Sueki leaned in to her teacher and whispered, eying Kakuzu warily. "I smell five different hearts in him besides for his own, each one is a different blood type."
"Is that so…the Jiongu bloodline huh" Naruto mumbled. "So…he's not likely to die after one hit? That's great."
The vampire bowed and shuffled backwards into the circle. Kakuzu watched her attentively. "I'll get her bounty too?"
"One thing at a time, Waterfall shinobi. You need to kill me first." Naruto waved off the question flippantly, and at the end of his sentence his tone took a small, dark dip and he glowered menacingly to the man across from me. Then, just like that, his eyes flicked back to genial. "Now show me that strength you've been talking so much about."
The Waterfall ninja stared at Naruto, waiting for him to enter one fighting style so that he, Kakuzu, could read it and find holes, but his eyebrows shot up into his hairline when, after ten seconds, Naruto still had his hands at his sides and was leaning back lazily, looking back at him with an intrigued look.
"Well?"
The greedy shinobi could see holes all over Naruto's form.
All over him.
He grinned under his mask and switched his fighting style to something stronger and faster, pushing his right fist forward, his left fist slightly back, his back slouched, his legs and shoulder width and bent.
"Interesting choice, Falling Meteor fist; I haven't seen that in years." Sueki eagerly jotted down his words as soon as she sealed his clothing and unsealed her jotter and pen. The style used fire chakra on the user's knuckles to scorch the target with each fast, heavy blow, whittling them down to ash. It was a very explosive fighting style. And true to his words, Kakuzu's fists faintly glowed red.
The war veteran remembered fighting a whole wave of Star country ninjas that used that fighting style.
He hadn't bothered to learn it but he knew a few nifty counter moves.
Naruto cocked his head to the side and a blow blazed past his face.
Whomf!
A column of fire exploded from his fist and the ninjas behind their Leader hastily flashed through hand seals. "Hiden art: Clay release: Impregnable Terracotta Fortress!" the clay rose up from the ground and formed a wall before them. The fire slammed into the wall and baked it black, cracking it. The wall fell down as soon as the fire subsided but then they saw Kakuzu, sporting a black eye and a bleeding ear, leaping backwards, away from their master.
'What the-'
Those that had not been blocked by the wall could just barely keep up to what happened.
After narrowly dodging the blow, Naruto's fists jabbed the man's flak jacket protected belly four times, his left fist came back and sent a jarring left hook across his face, bursting Kakuzu's right eardrums and darkening his right eye and, when the older man was dazed by the five second fast succession of punches, Naruto reared his right fist back and let the straight punch dig into Kakuzu's face.
The man tumbled onto his back, managed to roll back to his feet and skip away from the stationary Ghost, as the other man followed his movements with raptly interested eyes, as if he still eagerly expected Kakuzu to pull a monumental secret skill out of his pocket.
The ninjas erupted into hearty cheers at the sequence of attacks.
"Fuck." Kakuzu swore under his breath. "I couldn't even see them coming."
His ear bled freely and his rattled jaw throbbed painfully.
His stomach rumbled dangerously, still feeling the four fist marks deep in his gut. That was when blood and black thread rushed out of his masked mouth and he doubled over, grabbing his stomach; the human body could not accommodate five additional human hearts, so the five hearts of his five former victims were located at the forefront of his body, a bit outside of his stomach but still under his flak jacket, hidden from view and detection. The four blows the Leader of Darkness had given him had burst four of those hearts, them being Nerve Jabs, and leaving him with just his Fire Heart and his birth heart. Black thread flailed and writhed madly in his head and out of his mouth.
He looked up at the man that had thrown his body and his bloodline against him, black thread spilling out of his right eye.
Naruto took two steps forward-
Tzzzt
-And Kakuzu found a knee in his midsection. Blood arced out of his mouth as he flew backwards, only to be caught by his nose and dragged back to Naruto. The blonde twisted Kakuzu's nose and used his other hand to lay waste to the bounty hunters torso, peppering it with punches.
Naruto released the man's nose and stepped back, nonchalantly walking around the man's form as he thrashed to get back to his feet. He muttered as his eyes flashed white with dangerous energy and black smoke wafted off his pale form.
"Hiden art: Lightning release: Blink One-Two Step."
The black markings on his arms briefly hummed with life and his black painted nails ebbed with wispy smoke, barely even seen.
"Want to see something cool?" Naruto asked.
Kakuzu hopped back to his feet and surged to Naruto again, his fists burning red with fire.
"Water release: Snake Egg Torture technique." He bent out of the way of a fire coated fist, forced the arm to point upwards so that the pillar of fire harmlessly roared into the air, plunged his fist into Kakuzu's face and exhaled.
A water moccasin made out of water shot out of his masked mouth and bit down on Kakuzu's forehead, wrapping its body around the man and covering his whole head with water. The bounty hunter fell onto the ground with the fist still digging into his face and mistakenly gasped, inhaling some of the water.
Orochimaru had been the one that taught Naruto that jutsu; the snake summoner's custom snake was a python while Naruto got a water moccasin. The water the bounty hunter inhaled went down his throat and entered his lungs, retaining the form of drop like eggs and settling themselves in every part of Kakuzu's lung.
Kakuzu coughed in agony as a result, swallowing some more water snake eggs.
"The process is very painful, Waterfall shinobi. Your Jiongu bloodline is ineffective against internal asphyxiation." Naruto commented as he removed his fist from the man's face, slipping it out of the water snake wrapped around the downed ninjas head. "If only you had used a more…sensible means of coming for my bounty, I would have given you a swift, relatively painless death." The man choked, clawing at his neck and his chest in excruciating pain, hacking and wheezing for precious air.
He bent down and said in a low, demonic voice.
"There is no dignity for the damned."
He chuckled evilly as Kakuzu scratched at Naruto's sandaled feet, struggling with shaking arms to lift himself up and at least deliver a blow to the blonde but Naruto shook his head with a smile, the moccasin hissed and tightened its hold, laying more water eggs in Kakuzu's mouth. His writhing became weaker and his skin began to pale, his limbs lost their energy and he tasted iron.
His body wracked in the throes of death.
His iris dilated and constricted wildly, before settling on dilated.
He coughed once more.
Then he died.
Naruto watched on gleefully, then he placed his pointer and middle finger on the man's neck, dispelling his water snake. He was satisfied to not feel any pulse. He straightened up and waved for his ninjas to go about their functions, discarding the body into the Dark Forest for the wild animals to eat.
Sueki approached him and Naruto said to her. "Gather your operatives and tell them we move out to Waterfall right now."
A gleam entered Sueki's red eyes. She tapped the BLAK seal on her upper arm, sending five pulses of chakra into the tattoo. She got two pulses back and she pulled down her long sleeve. "Done."
The white haired vampire then fell down on her right knee and presented her master with his grotesquely grinning mask.
Fifty black operatives shimmered into existence behind their subserviently kneeling BLAK commander, all also on their knees and with their left fists on their chests. Naruto smiled at their neatly arranged formation looked away, taking off his half mask and sliding his grinning mask over his head, hiding his blonde hair and the rest of his face.
The Leader of Darkness's blue eyes glowed from under his mask.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Blood…blood…blood…
Blood
The massacre would not only echo through the history of the country but, when discovered years later, would drive fear into the souls of the rest of the people on the continent.
The first thing they did was count the number of people in the village.
Well…no…
The first thing they did was murder the gatekeepers. Then they swept around the borders and systematically cut down any living being they saw, thus surrounding the village and then they stole the identities of the dead shinobi, using their chakra to allow them entry through the Waterfall village's natural defences.
There were two ways into the village and the fifty stormed in through both.
The Shadows of the Country of Assassins spared no one.
True to their master's words, the deathly loyal group of ninjas killed half of the people in the village, wetting the floor with blood and scarring anyone unfortunate enough to see them commit the deed. Most of them weren't even sure what happened; one moment they were talking to their friends and their families, and the next they were in the middle of a blood bath, the culprits darting through the shadows with their blood soaked weapons.
Thunk thunk thunk
Arrows rained down from a shadow high above the cave, skewering through three people, shooting out of their bodies, clanging against the cobbled floor and slicing through the hearts of three more people.
AIIYYYYYEEEEEEEEE!
A tormented voice wailed, finally signalling the death raining down from out of nowhere. The silence itself had been foreboding but now, as some of them saw shuriken whistle out from an alley and open up the throats of another group of people, panic ensued.
The exits were blocked.
They were being picked off like cattle.
The village didn't have any allies to worry about and their country's daimyo was a weak willed man that cowered away from confrontation. Any village that heard of the massacre would be wary of overstepping Dark country's border or harming the people, including allies.
Naruto was ready for the angered letters from country leaders and maybe a few Kage.
Deciding on the retaliatory strike didn't take Naruto more than two seconds.
Mass genocide felt fitting for Kakuzu's attack on his border.
Sueki flowed past a couple in a flurry of darkness, leaving behind a single senbon stabbed deep in the man's side and rushed to her next target. The man's eyes turned dark red with the vampire's blood and he turned to his wife, growling like a demented beast.
"H-H-Honey?" the woman asked hesitantly, not knowing or sensing the vampire that had just passed them. "W-what's w-wrong?"
The man grabbed her neck and proceeded to squeeze the life out of her.
When he was done, he removed the senbon and pushed it into his ear.
Phoenix dropped down from the roof of a building, landed before a fleeing woman and jammed her fingers into her chest, where her heart was, and subsequently set it on fire. She stumbled over some blood flowing on the ground and landed on her face.
"Ack-disgusting…" she commented. A pair of feet entered her line of sight and she looked up. Panda stared down at her for a moment, then he presented his left hand to her. She took it gratefully and hefted herself up. "Thanks."
"Try not to do something so unsightly next time." The ink user said as he attached a small bomb onto the back of a man speeding past him without looking away from his teammate. "Lord Leader is here with us. We must be on our best behaviour."
Phoenix watched as the bomb went off, taking off the head of the victim. She scratched the back of her head. "Yeah…I'm just so nervous. I want to impress him, y'know."
"Don't forget your training." Panda said and slipped past her, she turned around and he was already gone, leaving to somewhere else to bring death and mayhem.
"'Don't forget your training'" the bronze skinned Kemuri mimicked in frustration. "Spoiled sport." She leaped up onto the roof and kept her ear out as her deputy captain counted down how many people needed to be killed as they were being killed.
She spotted her Leader walking out of the office building of the Waterfall village. The masked man's fingers were threaded through the hair of the Waterfall Leader's thin hair. The man's decapitated head was twisted in agony as the Master of Dark country easily walked away from the blood soaked building, where the people inside had all been mercilessly killed. Phoenix tripped as she made to leap onto another building to get a better look and fell off the single storey building, face planting into the sopping wet ground.
"Ugh…again?"
Naruto stood on a crate in the town square and scratched the chin of his mask, some of his ninjas were milling around him in silently warbling mass of darkness, their clothes meshing with each other and the dim light cast by the recent massacre.
"Gather round! Gather round!" Wasp yelled from his place atop a building, perched and looking down with rapture at his leader. "Master wants to say something!"
The other BLAK operatives not surging around their most important master corralled the remaining half of the population, forcing them onto their knees in compulsory subservience before the masked Leader of the Darkness.
The people cried desperately as ninjas clad in black clothing hovered about them. Wisely enough, the ninja population was cut down more than half and the civilians were spared for the most part. They quieted down when a seven foot tall black ops wearing a Lion mask bellowed for silence.
"I don't care about justifying this attack." Naruto began, swinging the decapitated head without a care in the world. "In my profession, justifying murder is too troublesome. Just know that your Leader brought this on all of you." He waved the head and people moaned pitifully at the terrifyingly twisted man's face.
Bent and bloodied like his face had been repeatedly hit on the corner of his desk and then he had then summarily been decapitated with a rusty spoon.
He looked like he had suffered before he was granted death.
Naruto's crystal blue eyes searched through the crowd, then he threw the head at a seemingly normal man. "You." BLAK Kunoichi Squirrel pushed through the kneeling people and yanked the man onto his feet. He was in a chunin flak jacket. "You'll be the new Leader of Waterfall. Congratulations." The ninjas knees knocked against each other as Squirrel shoved the head of the former leader into his arms and banged him back down onto his knees. "Quite the promotion, right guys?"
He was met with silence.
Lion snarled and they all bobbed their heads.
"There we go." Naruto said as laughter glittered in his cerulean eyes. "Now, I don't want any of you 'retaliating' ok? Or else we'll come back and finish the job."
He lifted his arms and shrugged airily. "This is the price you all pay for your leader's stupidity." He hopped off the crate and the BLAK operatives around him dropped onto their knees, bowing their heads. They made a path for him as he made his way to the front entrance to the village, some followed after him in billows of darkness and speed, hopping and jumping ahead of him to ensure no one from outside was dumb enough to attack. It was funny because there was no one outside.
They were all dead.
Naruto faltered in his steps and turned around saying. "Also, we're taking half of the money in your reserves and half of any valuables we can find. Hope you all don't mind." he didn't wait for a reply, only walking out of the devastated village as the ninjas that remained behind looted exactly half of any of Waterfall's valuables they found. This included natural resources-whether already taken out of the earth or not-, important documents of investments across their border, jutsu scrolls, old books, new books, jewellery, and so much more
Ketsueki, the only student of the Ghost and the BLAK commander, was busy in the Waterfall Leader's office, stashing stack after stack of ryu notes into storage seals, counting up to tens of millions.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
11:12AM
The Hokage's Office
Hokage Tower
Konoha
Danzo scoffed as the receptionist frantically beckoned him to wait before he could enter the Hokage's office.
"Unhand me, woman." He spat and wrenched his hand out of her grip, narrowing his eyes at the fearful civilian.
"Lord Danzo, there is already a meeting going on inside-"
"As far as I know, every meeting that goes on in the Hokage's Office concerns me. Now," he pushed open the door and the Sandaime to him, removing his eyes from his toad summoning student. "Hiruzen."
"Ah, yes, Danzo. I'll be with you in a minute." The man replied the frosty greeting and the crippled war hawk shuffled into the office, making sure to close the door after him and taking a seat before the desk, next to Jiraiya. "I meant in the-"
"You are the one that summoned me here, Hiruzen." Danzo said down to his old rival. "I was busy with my duties."
"…Of course…" the Third said in a hard voice, restraining his frustration. He returned his attention to his white haired student. "You were saying?"
"It's only a matter of time before Darkness finds out about him, Hiruzen-sensei. Maybe they already have and are mobilizing their men to come and kidnap him. All I ask is that he be given twenty four hour security, hidden, of course, unless he is with me. We cannot allow them to take this chance from us."
"I am still yet to believe that the…lookalike…is worth the trouble."
"He is a prodigy, sensei!"
"You've said that already."
"The Kurama, they could have relayed his existence to their master already, we might even have a mole in our midst." Jiraiya said and Danzo didn't break character, stonily blinking at both men as they conversed. "He has the drive to kill the Ghost."
"We all do." Danzo interrupted and his eyes darkened. "Every single one of us desires to kill the Ghost."
"You have to believe me, sensei." Jiraiya continued, as if Danzo had not spoken. "This kid could be the strongest, most fastest Kage in all of history. He could even be faster that Lord Tobirama. I can't always be around to teach or protect him until he can take care of himself. All I ask is for us all to look after him."
"Listen to me, Jiraiya." The Sandaime said in a strong voice. "I will not spare any of my ninjas to look after that lookalike until you give me proof he is worth any of our time."
"But-But…But I showed you the results of his IQ test." The toad summoner stammered, pushing forward a few pieces of paper to the man, showing the above two hundred and fifty result of the Namikaze. This result placed him above the mental capability of a chunin Nara. "He passed the Entrance Examination with flying colours, Orochimaru marked it himself!"
The man hummed in displeasure. "You said you want to teach him fuinjutsu, correct?"
"Hai."
"Make him reach level four by the end of next year-"
"That's impossible!"
"Is he not a prodigy?" Hiruzen mocked with a twisted smirk. "If he reaches level four by the end of next year, then I can dispatch my ninjas to watch him while he sleeps."
"T-That means…I have to protect him myself…" the younger ninja muttered in disbelief. "But…I have to go on missions…my spy network…"
"I guess you have to juggle both of them." Hiruzen shrugged.
Jiraiya's eyes narrowed and a rebuke burned hot on his lips; if Orochimaru had come to him with this gem, then their teacher won't even wait before the snake finished before giving him what he wanted. He stood up abruptly and grated. "Fine."
"Take these with you." The Third said and looked down at the scattered IQ result and the exam result.
Jiraiya collected his things and stomped to the door, closing it and giving both older ninjas their privacy.
"Who was he referring to, Hiruzen?"
The Sandaime felt a vein throb on his forehead at his rival continuously calling him by his name and not by his well-earned title. "Minato Namikaze."
Danzo's mind turned and he wondered aloud. "How have I never heard of him if he is supposed to be a prodigy?"
"The brat spends his time holed up somewhere in the library or on the mountain, no one sees him much." But that didn't stop people from hating him when they did see him. "I'm surprised you don't know about him, Danzo."
"I've been busy." Gathering information from Danzo's library, sending the ROOT to look into the state of things in Konoha and ordering them to compile their findings while he looked into ROOTs past missions. In truth, the one eyed man hadn't been out of ROOT HQ for days and the dying war hawk hadn't seen Minato's existence as any sort of priority.
Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at the short reply. "Apparently you have."
"Why am I here, Hiruzen?"
"I want you to shut down ROOT." Danzo didn't change expression at the statement. The Sandaime perched his elbows onto the desk and laced his fingers under his head, staring down his old friend. "Now."
"How did you find out?"
"I've known all along, old friend. I just decided to keep quiet about it, but now your actions are becoming too dangerous. With how Darkness is becoming a threat, we need to prioritize them over an imminent invasion from other, angry nations. Your operation is becoming too large and you've involved orphans, Danzo. Orphans."
"You speak like you even care about them." Danzo fired back, taking Hiruzen by surprise. "I gave them a proper home and a definite goal to reach for."
"They are children."
"I should be saying that to you, old friend. Look at the state of the orphanage and come back to me for sympathy." Danzo hissed with fractionally narrowed eyes. "You don't understand…I am their hope when you let them down. I am their purpose when you gave them none." He stood up from his seat in outrage and Hiruzen remained seated, his hair casting a shadow over his eyes. "Protecting the Leaf is all I care about; I…can't expect you to understand."
"…Shut it down, Danzo…or I will."
Danzo tipped his chin up and looked down at the festering Kage. The one eyed man felt like he had hit a sore spot with his last statement, so he prodded it harder. "You will never understand caring for the Great Tree, not like I do."
"…Take it all down. I will not repeat myself."
"…Fine." Danzo turned on his heel and walked out of the door.
Hiruzen Sarutobi spent the next hour staring into space, idly puffing on a cigarette.
While on his way out of the Hokage's Tower, Danzo mentally fist bumped himself at his performance.
Of course he wasn't going to shut down ROOT.
His mind then went to Minato Namikaze and what he was to do with him…
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
01:33PM
Dark country Port
Dark country
"Tomorrow will be our last voyage out of the country. It's to drop off a shipment of tobacco to Uzushio and bring back some logs of wood. Routine stuff." The foreman shrugged.
"Routine stuff?" Naruto asked, flicking his eyes up from the list of shipments that year, as had already been submitted to the bank.
The man nodded. "Routine stuff. It is by far the easiest and quickest job we have here, sir. It won't take us more than…hmm…eight hours; three hours to go, two hours to offload and load up the ship and three hours to return. We only need three ships to do that. You can be rest assured, my lord, that we will be back before tomorrow."
"Good." Naruto snapped the bool shut and passed it back to the foreman. "By tomorrow I want all ships docked and accounted for, report your return to the bank so Director Amara can properly secure the boats before the snow storm."
"Of course, boss."
The foreman of Naruto's ships was delegated authority, from Naruto, through the council, to commandeer a fleet of fifteen ships. The transportation of goods and services as well as human passengers was classified under the Trade Department of the Civilian Division.
Naruto got up, the foreman hurriedly got up as well, and left the office, trudging down the planks and landing on the dock. The duo had to rush home and take a quick shower to wash off the stink of blood from their bodies.
Naruto's plan for that day was to compress a whole week of winter preparation duties into one day so that his week would be more open, giving him the chance to properly acquaint Kushina into Darkness. Sueki, as the BLAK commander, was never truly off-duty, for her duties also encompassed border security and maintaining connection with her black ops spies in other nations and ensuring the safety of Dark citizens that lived in non-allied locations. Not to say that she had enough ninjas to keep a constant watch on them but they were tasked to check up on them from time to time, albeit in secret.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Dark country Retirement Home
Western Region
Dark country
"Please, sir, you don't have to stand." Naruto insisted, taking a seat next to the one hundred and fifteen year old man that had wanted to stagger to his feet and salute his Leader. The Dark Leader smiled at the man, who squinted hard to get a good look at the younger man's face. "How have you been?"
"Well…" the man coughed and shakily wiped his bottom lip with the back of his hand. "It's gettin' cold buh…I'm doin' fine."
"I'm glad to hear that."
"My gran' nephew wis 'ere a few minutes ago…ya jus missed 'im."
"Don't worry about him; I'm here to see you," Naruto said, lightly patting the back of the man's hand, saying to the other elders in the retirement home. "I'm here to see all of you. Make sure this winter won't be too hard, you know."
"Isn't he a sweetheart?" a woman in her late nineties, seated at another table, cooed.
"Easy there, Rin." Another lady seated on the same table said, slyly sending a look to their sweat dropping Leader and his student. "He already has a sweetheart."
"I know, I know," the first woman waved off, scoffing and looking down at their game of cards. "Don't they look cute?"
"I just want to squish their cute little cheeks." A dark skinned lady on the other side of the woman called with a wide grin.
The old men burst out into laughs and some of the uniformed attendants chuckled under their breath. Naruto rolled his eyes. "I'll have you know that Su is the only one bringing cute to the table." The retired war veterans and retired civilians burst into deep belly laughs, even the over a hundred year old man seated next to Naruto. Naruto motioned to his half masked face and said. "Nothin' about this is cute."
An eighty something year old man, ex-jounin from the Suzumebachi clan, from what Naruto could guess, grabbed Sueki, who had been silently trying to contain her blush, by her wrist and said. "Look at her! She's all red!"
The almost emotionless vampire decided to play along with the recreational room-full of elders, clapping her free hand to her cheek and attempting to hide her face.
Naruto gestured to her with a larger than life smile at the corner of his eyes. "See? Isn't that adorable?"
"But you two are so skinny!" a man of a ninety something years old shouted. He was a heavy set civilian from the Pansa-Senshi clan. "Stay a while so we can fatten you up!"
"Here, here!" a whole section of the room cheered.
They were awfully energetic for old people, Naruto thought with a laugh.
"My great grandson is going to have a barbecue to celebrate New Year soon; you can come and eat real food." Another panther clan member shouted.
"Ohohoho, I'll definitely go." Naruto promised. He stood up and some of them collectively groaned. "I'll find time and visit again."
"This is the most fun I've had in months, kid. These old farts don't know how to liven things up." A Gado man exclaimed.
"Who're you callin' old fart, ya old fart?" a Chui-Inku woman returned. "You're older than most of us!"
Naruto snatched Sueki's hand and snuck out as the elders threw light hearted jabs at each other's age. Naruto quietly clicked the door to the recreational room closed and exhaled in relief.
One of the attendants approached them with an apologetic smile. "They're only happy you came to see them, Lord Naruto."
"Oh no, I'd be worried if they didn't joke around." Naruto waved off the apology. He looked at the male attendant with a slight smile; the man was in the light blue short uniform of the retirement house attendant, white trainers and he had on a pair of thin, circular medicated glasses. He had a head of smooth, gelled down dark brown hair and murky brown eyes. There was a jagged slash over his throat and a dark burn mark on the right side of his forehead.
The former rebel leader looked well.
"I apologize for not coming more, Muzan." Naruto said with a weak shrug. "I've been occupied with-"
"Sir, you don't have to apologize. I know how hard it is to lead and I can't blame you for being busy. I'm really just glad that this country is in much better shape under you than I could ever accomplish."
"Bah, don't say that; you did what you could during the war. You've saved so many people and you gave our people hope when there was none. You're a hero." Naruto's right hand flicked up and formed the Dark country hand sign. "Kurono."
The other man copied the sign with a shaky smile, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the compliment from the other legend. "Kurono, sir."
Naruto dropped the hand sign and fixed the man with a strong look. "Are you happy here, Muzan? Is this what you really want to do?"
The bespectacled man nodded and released his own horned hand sign. "This is what I've wanted to do, sir. These people sacrificed so much for our country; their bodies, their sanity and their own lives. I'm only giving them the honour they deserve by taking care of them." the rare Mercury release user gazed forlornly past his Leader and to the shut door behind him. "I saw, first hand, what the war was doing to them and sending them out to repel the Royal clan and Konoha ninjas and Iwa ninjas and…It was breaking them. I did what I could to lessen the load but…these guys…they didn't want anyone younger than them going to the frontlines." He looked back to Naruto, a glaze over his eyes and a lopsided smile on his lips. "They're very stubborn."
Naruto had gotten the gist of it long ago; when Muzan became the rebel leader, he had been limited from sending ninjas under the ages of forty out to do the actual fighting, while those that didn't fall under the senior ninja bracket were to protect the civilians and aid those that wanted to escape the country. Now, most of the ninjas that had helped sustain Dark country's freedom from Fire country, Konoha and the Royal clan were either retired and lived in the catering home or had retired from active duty and relegated themselves to less action-packed functions and jobs.
Naruto didn't mind at all that the war veterans had settled in the background, because it allowed those they had fought for to step up and take charge. They were all supportive of their Leader and had been particularly been vocal in praising the progression of their country.
The Leader of Darkness currently had more Shinobi and Kunoichi in his active duty roster than there was in the civil war and not only were they many but they were also properly trained in the arts of the country and, if they had, of their clan.
Muzan was a clanless that had been lucky enough to be born with the deadly bloodline and he had been a pivotal part of ensuring the civil war and the Great War didn't run over the country.
Naruto patted the man's shoulder and presented his left hand. "Let me know if you need anything, Muzan."
Muzan graciously took Naruto's hand with a slight bow, lowering his eyes humbly. He took his Leader's left hand with his own. "You have my thanks, Lord Naruto, for everything you've done."
"I should be saying that to you." Naruto beamed. He released the retired ninjas hand and walked past him. Sueki went up to Muzan and shook his hand, their left hands grasped and the vampire bowed to the bespectacled man. She silently retrieved her hand and rushed to her master as he left the Retirement Home.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
By seven in the evening, they were on the last task both of them wanted to do for that day, and that was grocery shopping and stocking up on food and clothes for the next month and a half.
A smoke clone of the leader was slowly pushing forward a trolley of items while the original, not in his robe and hat but in his normal shinobi garb-except for his weapons-, was throwing items into the trolley on one side of the aisle and Sueki was tossing other things into the trolley from the other side. They murmured under their breathes as they read the previously compiled list of things they wanted to purchase, rattling down and ticking what they found as they found it.
"Have you found the candles, sensei?"
"Yeah, have you seen buckets?"
The vampire pursed her lips and scanned the aisle, swiftly moving up and snagging three plastic buckets. "Got them."
Naruto moved to another section of the supermarket, another clone pulsed out from his back sealessly and dutifully pushed the cart as it began to fill up. He took one side and Sueki took another. "Kushina's asking for sealing paper, ink and a few quills. Oh, and she wants to change her bedroom carpet."
"I've already put in the fuinjutsu things. I can come back here with her tomorrow for the carpet." His student answered as she ticked off a roll of duct tape.
"No, I can handle it."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure; Kushina and I can squeeze in carpet shopping tomorrow. We can pick out some new furniture for her and the house as well."
The white haired woman scratched her chin. "The kitchen sink does need to be changed…"
"Exactly." Naruto pointed out, grabbing an iron and his student took an ironing board. "We can sort out what furniture we need tomorrow morning before Kushina and I head out."
"Alright, if you say so." She looked over her list again and then to the two carts, filled with things they had tossed in. "I've got everything on my list."
"Same here."
The smoke clones made their way to the cashier, passing by fellow late night shoppers, dumbfounded at seeing three of their magnificent leader doing mundane shopping with his dear student.
"Lord Naruto, sir!" the man at the register exclaimed, bowing as they approached. "Good evening."
"Evening. Ring us up, please."
The total of the purchases couldn't possibly have fitted in Naruto's wallet, so the Leader wrote a cheque and charged it to his personal account. He looked to Sueki and the woman made a note to check up on the account to see if the supermarket actually cashed in or simply didn't, making their purchases free. Naruto didn't like taking hand-outs, especially when these hand-outs could register as losses for the respective businesses.
The vampire sealed all of their things into a scroll and tucked it into her pocket, somewhat skipping after her master as he exited the supermarket.
"Is there anything else we need to go?" she asked as she noticed a look in his eyes.
"Yup, but I'm going alone." Naruto insisted as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Kushina might still be awake by now and I don't want to burden Suzuyi anymore than she should."
"…Ok." She sulked. "I'll…wait for you with dinner."
"Thank you, Su." He bent down and pressed his masked mouth against her forehead. She felt a small tingle and a small smile bloomed on her lips.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Dark country Capital General Hospital
Naruto silently crept through the white tiled, rigorously cleaned hallway of the fourth floor of the hospital, keeping his presence down so much so he was basically non-existent to those that traipsed down the hall. His shoulders brushed the walls as he stayed out of the way of the doctors and nurses wheeling down injured patients in stretchers and wheelchairs. There were also green gown wearing patients, shinobi of various rank and clan affiliation, tiredly shuffling down the halls, using as much time made available to them by their physicians to exercise their bodies.
The blue eyed blonde was in the Shinobi Ward of the hospital, and his eyes dimmed at the number of injured comrades he saw; he recognized a few from some personal encounters. There was a clanless woman that had an arm cast on her right arm that, with as much energy she could muster, ambled down the wide hall to wherever it was she was going; the chunin had sustained the injury while she was corralling a herd of Demon Horse back into the Dark Forest with her comrades. There was a Hogo man that was rolling himself down the hallway on a wheelchair, his feet burnt black by Kakuzu as the man fought to repel the dead near S rank Waterfall ninja.
The Leader averted his eyes and kept his frown to himself, making extra sure not to draw attention as he silently stepped past all of them, masterfully utilizing his skills of wiping out his existence as he moved.
The masked blonde stopped before a hospital room in the middle side of the hallway that had a silver plaque nailed onto it that read Dr Yuma Nakamura, Medical Consultant written in bold, clear words.
Naruto lifted his right fist and paused, his eyebrows lowered as he thought long and hard if he really wanted to do this. He flexed his finger and steeled his gaze.
Knock knock knock
He pushed open the door as he heard the muffled call from the other side of the door. The room had cool blue wall paper and beige coloured carpet, with a single hospital bed placed near the window at the end of the room and a desk on the other side of the room. Behind the desk was a man in his early thirties with short dark purple hair and bright yellow eyes. He was in a doctor's coat and modest, semi-formal clothing under.
The man had formerly had his head deep in paper work until he looked up. He rose onto his feet as he registered the person peeking into the medical consulting room, different from his usual office.
"I hope I'm not too early." Naruto said as he entered the office, closing the door mutely and turning back to the doctor.
"Of course not sir, I've cleared most of my appointment for today." he answered truthfully and Naruto's frown became more pronounced.
"That's not good. There could have been someone that needed your help."
"Your health is my priority and the priority of your people, Lord Naruto." He gestured to the chair before his desk. "Please, sit."
Naruto slinked his way to the chair and sat down with a huff.
"How may I be of service, my lord?" Yuma asked and leaned forward on his desk, resting his arms and looking intently at the Supreme Commander of Dark country, who didn't have on his distinguishing official robe and hat but in an ordinary set of ninja clothing, even with a Dark country forehead protector wrapped around his forehead.
He had been pushing back and postponing this doctor's appointment for years now both because he was always being called away by his duties and another reason being that he was afraid of what he was going to hear. Sueki only knew that he was going for a regular doctor's appointment.
Naruto tapped the side of his head with his index finger. "I've been having headaches. Some days, my eyes burn."
Yuma's forehead crinkled. "For how long has this been happening?"
"Some years' now." Yuma raised an eyebrow, not too amused by how flippantly Naruto treated his health. "Since after Hanzo, maybe…seven, eight years ago. I think?"
Yuma shifted to what Naruto had done for the throbbing first. "Have you met anyone concerning the headache and eye pain?"
"I met Orochimaru after an old friend of mine killed Hanzo," Yuma lifted an eyebrow; as far as he knew, his Leader had done much more than anyone else in killing the former Amekage, so any subsequent death should be attributed to Naruto and not anyone else. He put his mind back on track as Naruto went on. "But it was because of this," he flashed his grinning maw and replaced his mask back onto his face. Back then, Naruto still strongly hated Konoha but he had set aside his hate to find out just what was going on with his body. "I didn't tell him about anything else and I didn't let him take samples. I asked if this," he pointed his masked face. "Had anything to do with my bloodlines."
"And he didn't know?" Yuma wasn't fazed in the least by the nightmare that Naruto had flashed him.
"He said it might have to do with my Lightning release bloodline." Naruto shrugged. "He wanted samples to study, I didn't give him."
"Where exactly in your head does it hurt?"
"Back of my head."
"And you said your eyes burn?"
"Some days." Naruto reminded him. "They haven't burned for…uhm…six months or so. When they do, my vision gets really blurry."
"Do you drink alcohol?"
"Not for seven years."
"Do you smoke or have you ever smoked?"
"No, never."
"Have you ever taken hallucinogenic, recreational or performance enhancing drugs?"
"Nope."
"I won't judge-"
"Ha, I've never taken any of those kinds of drugs."
"What about medicated drugs?"
"I remember taking cough syrup for a sore throat when I was still learning from Orochimaru." The man had simply given Naruto and left it in his hands to be used at his own discretion. A bit…reckless on Orochimaru's part, but the man wasn't one to care for anyone. "Technically not medicated, but the guy is a scientist."
"Would it be fine with you if I run a test on you?" Yuma still had some questions. He waved to the hospital bed by the window and Naruto looked at him, his eyes somewhat alarmed.
"I thought you'd prescribe me some pain killers."
"I will do no such thing as play with my Lord's health." Yuma said in a strong voice. Waving to the bed again. "Now, please, take a seat there."
Naruto's shoulders slumped and he begrudgingly listened to the clanless medical expert, walking to the bed and sitting down. Yuma got up from his desk and, picking a pair of plastic gloves, he stashed them into his doctor's coat and made his way to Naruto.
"This is merely a routine sweep of your system." Yuma's hands flipped through several hand seals. "Medical Ninjutsu: Full-Body System Check." His hands glowed with green chakra and he slowly held each hand over Naruto's ears, hovering his hands over the blondes face and moving downwards. He stopped at Naruto's sides and his hands flickered off. He took out a small notepad and wrote inside it with a pencil.
Naruto's eyes raptly looked at the man and tried to peer into the pad. "What does that mean?"
Yuma ignored the almost panicked question. He took off Naruto's forehead protector and handed it to the Leader. "Now, I'm going to scan your head." his hands flowed through a different set of seals and he placed his right palm on Naruto's forehead, holding his left hand to the side of Naruto's head. He hummed with a small frown, shifted the hand on Naruto's forehead to the side and replaced it with his left hand, then soon after moving his right hand to the back of Naruto's head. The medical jutsu flicked off again and the doctor wrote in the pad.
"Is…something wrong…?" Naruto hadn't particularly been interested in Medical Ninjutsu, or patient enough to learn it, though he did know basic first aid and he could keep a person alive for some time until professional help arrived. He was completely in the dark with what was happening. "…Yuma?"
"Describe the pain at the back of your head, Lord Naruto."
"Throbbing."
"I see." His next question then threw Naruto off. "I heard from a friend that you used a jutsu unique only to you when you fought Hanzo."
"Yes."
"What was the name?"
"Silent Night."
"Can you tell me about it?"
"…This would be strictly confidential, right?"
"I swear on my life and on my family's lives that I will not tell another soul of this meeting or of Silent Night." Naruto fixed the man with a long, hard look.
Then he told the good doctor about his ultimate ninja technique.
Yuma couldn't have looked any surprised. He inclined his head and muttered. "Truly magnificent, my lord. To be able to do that is…awe inspiring." It solidified his view of Naruto, who now stood at the pinnacle of ninja capabilities.
Naruto could perform the jutsu better now, seeing as he was older and wiser.
Compared to when he was seventeen and now that he was twenty four, his ultimate technique dwarfed anything his younger version could ever do.
"I've only done it once."
"Did…you know the risks?"
"My friends were in trouble…I couldn't care less about the risks." Before, Naruto had only come up with the ultimate technique in theory. He was at least smart enough not to play with the power and speed Silent Night gave him. "Does it have to do with my headaches?"
"Hai, for your face-and skin-as well." Naruto's eyes furrowed at the quick addition. "Your face…burnt off."
Naruto rubbed his eyes and groaned. "I thought so."
"The good news is that Silent Night isn't killing you; your body is in great shape and your organs are functioning properly. Your skin cells however are not healing or replicating as quickly as they are supposed to. This doesn't mean your skin is falling off or you're going to bruise easily and it certainly won't hinder your daily activities; it just means that you will have to be extra careful not to give yourself chakra-based injuries. From what I could detect, you've had it for years and you've done well in maintaining your skin condition." Naruto exhaled in relief, feeling somehow undecided on how to feel about being told he more or less had a non-transmittable skin condition. There wasn't any discoloration on his paper pale skin and the doctor didn't anticipate any major change until much later in Naruto's life. "But if you use it again, one of three things might happen." He lifted one finger. "Your brain will shut down once you deactivate Silent Night," meaning Naruto would be irreversibly brain dead but still very much alive. Another finger joined the first. "All the skin on your body will burn off," a third finger went up. "Or you'll die."
"I haven't had any reason to use it in years." Because, and Naruto didn't want to seem cocky by saying this, he was ridiculously powerful without using Silent Night.
"That's good to hear, sir." He went to the drug cabinet and retrieved a small container of pills; he walked back to his Leader and gave it to him. "This should ease up the headaches. It should also help deal with your eye pains but if they persist then…I might have to prescribe you glasses. I have to ask you for a blood and chakra sample so that we can come up with a lasting cure for your headaches and your eyes." He saw Naruto's eyes narrow. "Our laboratory is very reliable."
"It's not that I don't trust you or your laboratory. I only want this meeting to be kept a secret." The very last thing he wanted was for anyone of his people worrying about him or his health; they were already treating him delicately, going about him and doing things for him that he could definitely do by himself. If they discovered his headache then that pampering and care for him would multiply by a hundred. "
"You'll be using an alias. No one will find out." he pointed to the container and said. "Take them once a day in the morning and if you ever feel your headache again then come back here and I'll give you something stronger. And again, if you still feel your eyes burn even after taking this drug, then I will have to prescribe you glasses until we find a lasting cure. I'd also prefer it if you came by for a check-up at least once a week."
"I understand." Naruto held out his right arm and the man drew out blood from his arm. The Leader placed his pointer and middle finger on a small scroll and pushed his chakra into it, filling it halfway. The Chakra Storage Seal blackened slightly and Naruto looked to the man, remembering how dangerous his lightning and water affinity chakra was to anyone but him. "My chakra is very…volatile."
"I'll be very careful." No one that could use Silent Night should ever have normal chakra in the first place. "I'll keep you updated."
"Thanks for this, Yuma." Naruto said with a smile, hopping off the bed.
"It's an honour to help in any way I can." Yuma bowed. "My sister tells me that Kushina Uzumaki was sorted into her class for next year. Class 1B."
"Yeah, she's been pestering her mother for a while now."
Yuma's twin sister, Yumi Nakamura, was a teacher in the Ninja Academy. "She also says that Kushina has an affinity for fuinjutsu and kenjutsu."
"Like most Uzumaki." Naruto said and moved to the door. "She's got potential to be a monster on the field."
Yuma and Yumi had an older brother that was an active jounin-sensei in the Dark country roster, who was charged to teach Suzuyi Uzumaki's team-team twenty-. The Nakamura siblings were fairly established in the country and their parents had opened a hair salon in the southern region, where there was still an abundance of completed though unused buildings and open land, similar to the free-ranging space in the other regions plus the capital.
Yuma nodded, dropping the scroll and the blood sample onto the desk. "Let's hope, sir."
Naruto left the hospital as soundlessly as he had entered.
Authors note
I didn't anticipate for this chapter to be this long.
Hiruzen calling Minato 'lookalike' is cuz he doesn't want to accept anyone even remotely related to Naruto (besides the Kurama, cuz they're from Darkness) is in his village. Also, and unfortunately I wasn't able to find a place to squeeze this in, one of the reasons Naruto doesn't ride in carriages is cuz of the clackity clack clack noises. It gives him a worse headache and, on a normal day, he's able to hide it pretty well. He wasn't lying when he said he enjoys the fresh air.
Plus, Naruto's skin condition is also cuz of Silent Night. Which is why, if he ever uses it again, all of his skin could burn off (or he could become permanently catatonic or he'll die, y'know).
Still, what do you think?
Leave a review on your thoughts, would you so kindly. Please stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.
Foy.